HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS, June 29, 2006
Before the U.S. House of Representatives

I have been involved in politics for over 30 years and have never seen the American people so angry. Itís not unusual to sense a modest amount of outrage, but it seems the anger today is unusually intense and quite possibly worse than ever. Itís not easily explained, but I have some thoughts on this matter. Generally, anger and frustration among people are related to economic conditions; bread and butter issues. Yet today, according to government statistics, things are going well. We have low unemployment, low inflation, more homeowners than ever before, and abundant leisure with abundant luxuries. Even the poor have cell phones, televisions, and computers. Public school is free, and anyone can get free medical care at any emergency room in the country. Almost all taxes are paid by the top 50% of income earners. The lower 50% pay essentially no income taxes, yet general dissatisfaction and anger are commonplace. The old slogan ďItís the economy, stupid,Ē just doesnít seem to explain things

Some say itís the war, yet weíve lived with war throughout the 20th century. The bigger they were the more we pulled together. And the current war, by comparison, has fewer American casualties than the rest. So it canít just be the war itself.

People complain about corruption, but whatís new about government corruption? In the 19th century we had railroad scandals; in the 20th century we endured the Teapot Dome scandal, Watergate, Koreagate, and many others without too much anger and resentment. Yet today it seems anger is pervasive and worse than weíve experienced in the past.